So my son has contacted State of Illinois DVR. It's been about a month now. He said they did contact him and they would be calling him. He was amenable to this because some guy where he lives is receiving services and seems to be satisfied with what they're doing for him.
He had contacted them about three years ago. I took him to the appointment, but the counselor declined to start the case because he was moving to the north side, and said she would put in a referral to the agency closest to him in that location.
So they never contacted him. I called about three months after this, got a hold of a DVR counselor and got him an appointment. The counselor talked to me for a bit, and told me, "Marshall's is hiring. Kohl's is hiring." etc. But then he got the job at the grocery store, which he has had now for over two years, so we cancelled the appointment.
A few months after that, I took him for a private aptitude assessment (waste of time). Then he saw a career counselor from the social service agency that he was receiving case management services from. I spoke to a couple of counselors there. They had connections to the state in placing people in state jobs. They would pay for training. etc.etc. (I'm thinking that was a window of opportunity that he should have jumped on, since the State of Illinois is presently operating without a budget. Ugh).
So he quit going there, because the counselor actually wanted him to be actively involved in the process and research jobs, etc.
Then I found a private career counselor who was affordable, but they could never connect...telephone tag. He kind of admitted to me that he was kind of fearful of starting the process, and wanted to incorporate career exploration into his psychotherapy.
He told me that one career he and his therapist came up with was doing intake at a psychiatric hospital or mental health agency. Well, I told him, that's great, but it's way too narrow a category.
I would like to know more about Voc Rehab. Do they put you in a job, any job? If they can only steer him to minimum wage jobs, it will be a complete waste of time. Do they do assessments?
He is feeling better, and hasn't missed work in over 7 months. I know, because I get his pay stubs.
Doesn't matter to us what he wants to do. Manual labor, office, we don't care. I think he would like something where he is moving around. Don't know if he could tolerate midnight shift. Something that he could support himself with and make a modest living.
I really regret not going to those appointments with him. He gets overwhelmed when a lot of information is thrown at him.
SWOT, and Jabber, would like your opinions since you both have experience with what I'm talking about.
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